With it, Cohen wanted to "make a definitive statement about the heroic enterprise of the craft" of songwriting.
He had abandoned the song, but one night in Montreal he finished the lyrics and called an engineer and recorded it in one take with a toy synthesizer.
Ever mindful of his reputation as a "flat singer" among critics, audiences often reacted when Cohen sang these lines live.
Cohen also cited Hank Williams, a songwriter he had professed great admiration for, in the song ("...a hundred floors above me...").
Cohen recited the lyrics in full when he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.